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MFL Curriculum Overview

Key Stage 1 and 2 (Years 1-6)In Primary School, Mandarin or Spanish are taught to pupils at an appropriate level. Students not only enjoy learning the language, but also learning about their heritage and customs of culture. Throughout the year, a range of special events are dedicated to celebrating the cultural diversity of the school, Malaysia and the Foundation's links with Spanish speaking countries. This immersion provides many memorable experiences, as well as an opportunity to showcase their language skills.

Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9)At KS3, all students study two languages. They can choose from French (two hours a week), Spanish (two hours a week) and Mandarin (three hours a week). Malaysian students also study Bahasa (one hour a week).

We follow the French course book ‘Studio’, the Spanish course book ‘Mira’ and we use our own in-house resources for Mandarin and Bahasa. We make use of the schemes of work, assessment resources, additional exercises and all other resources made available with these courses. They will cover six modules over the course of the year in each language.

It is not expected that teachers follow the textbooks as a matter of course – the schemes of work outline key teaching points each term and teachers adapt their own materials to these accordingly. The scheme of work overviews allow for medium-long term planning and ensure consistency and continuity across the department.

Where possible, we try to group students according to ability in French and Spanish lessons. In Mandarin and Bahasa, students are tested in their first lesson in Year 7 and are grouped (roughly) according to ability and class size. Nevertheless every student is stretched with work and resources differentiated accordingly depending on prior attainment.

Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)Students stay in mixed ability groups, which are defined by their option blocks. They will all be studying to take the IGCSE exams in their chosen language. They can choose between French, Spanish, Mandarin and Bahasa.

We start the Cambridge GCSE exam courses and make use of the schemes of work assessment resources, past papers and textbooks provided by Cambridge. As with KS3 it is not expected that teachers follow the textbooks as a matter of course.

For both KS3 and KS4, Mandarin will soon be offered at three different levels; Chinese as a Modern Foreign Language, Chinese as a Second Language or Chinese as a First Language.

Key Stage 5 (Sixth Form)We currently offer French at KS5 and follow the AQA A Level course. We pride ourselves on having small groups that mean we can focus fully on supporting our students. We can offer both Spanish and Mandarin at A Level.